California's Pension Mugging

How Kamala Harris denied voters a chance to vote on reform.

Updated March 24, 2014 6:22 p.m. ET

One reason Democratic reformers are reluctant to stick out their necks is what happens to those who do. Witness how San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed was tag-teamed by public unions and Attorney General Kamala Harris when he tried to give California voters a chance to vote on pension reform.

Last October Mr. Reed introduced a ballot initiative which, as he explained in these pages, would amend the state constitution to allow prospective changes to worker retirement benefits. California's constitution like those in most states...